MX Nitro – Review (PS4)

MX Nitro is the latest Trials racer rocketing onto the PS4. It’s been a long wait since the last decent one, I must say. Now don’t expect any space age futuristic neon backdrops here, as this Trials racer brings the action closer to home.

MX Nitro is a side-scrolling motorbike stunt racer. You’ll always be travelling in a straight line and it’s all about how you utilise the acceleration, brake and nitro to gain a win and progress.

The game eases you into a short tutorial. Here you’ll be pulling wheelies and small stunts with ease, and leaning how to build up that precious nitro. The bigger the stunt, the longer the wheelie, and the more nitro you’ll earn. You’ll also be racking up the XP and cash as you unlock new tricks and win races. You notice pretty quickly that bike control is easy to master and stringing stunts together mid air is a breeze.

You’re pit against other eager AI speed freaks who rarely make mistakes and these dudes will push you. You’ll need to be daring, as safe riding won’t win races; it’s the nitro gained from the more complex stunts that help bag a first place. MX Nitro is no pushover. You’ll find yourself spending most of the time travelling on one wheel down the straights in a bid to earn that precious juice. Releasing the sudden surge of power before a jump, cliff or ramp is imperative to jump big and land a fancy mid air trick.

The single player mode has a variety of different race types to keep you glued to the handlebars, with over forty tracks from around the world. Each country is unlocked as you gain a win. There’s also extra challenges for each race if you’re feeling lucky. Here you’ll gain extra money if completed. Once you’ve stashed away a hefty amount you can upgrade your bike or purchase a new one, and there are five bikes in total to own and upgrade. It sounds short on bikes, and it is, but perhaps we’ve become spoiled with the likes of Ride 2 and DRIVECLUB Bikes. But there is a decent upgrading system for each bike, and this does chomp away at your precious savings. Once you do have a couple of new machines under your belt, switching between them before each race is super easy and quick. Another feature that doesn’t waste any time are the load times – short and sweet. If you want to restart a race midway, again, it’s a super fast restart. Races themselves are very short and will require multiple attempts to win each one.

As well as standard races, where connecting face to concrete may well be a regular occurrence, freestyle events push you into performing huge stunts and combos to outsmart your competition. There are also events like Sync ones. Here a string of stunts need to be rolled out in time with another rider. So it’s not just about hitting the right face buttons to perform each stunt, it’s also about nailing the timing too. Imagine synchronised swimming but on motorbikes, in mid air – it works, don’t worry! Other events include heats where you’ll need to perform Ultra Stunts to land on a given target and one on one boss battles to beat.

You can take the race online, but only once you’ve unlocked the track in single player mode. This does make wading thought the campaign more interesting knowing that you’re gaining more than just XP and cash for your time. There are leaderboards showing your world ranking on each online track too.

MX Nitro has everything going for it, until you realise its major downfall: there’s no Platinum Trophy. Heck, in a game that plays so well and one that you’ll want to invest time into, not having the main trophy is a tad disappointing. And for trophy hunters it gets worse. There are only bronze trophies on offer, all twenty one of them. Despite all this, MX Nitro looks good; it’s bright, bold and attention-grabbing, and the stadium events bring a further feel of razzmatazz to the track. From Europe to the Americas to central Africa, each environment offers a different flavour of race. Dusty tracks, huge jumps and ramps, it’s all there. MX Nitro certainly is a blast.

Conclusion

Whether it be on the track, pulling shapes in mid air, rambling up cliff faces or leaping over roof tops, MX Nitro delivers on all fronts. There’s a big single player mode to advance through and some competitive racing ahead. MX Nitro is a lean, mean machine.

Blondlizard is from London, England. His love of gaming continued onto the Sega Mega Drive, Gameboy, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, PlayStation 1,2,3 and 4, PSP and PS Vita. Blondlizard loves his racing games and is yet to play a RPG, but tells us he is willing to change. He is currently sitting on 60 Platinum’s, but the birth of his baby boy has slowed down the trophy count. His favourite inventions are the wireless controller and American size crisp packets.

About the Author

Blondlizard is from London. His love of gaming continued onto the Sega Mega Drive, Gameboy, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, PlayStation 1,2,3 and 4, PSP and PS Vita. Blondlizard loves his racing games and is yet to play a RPG, but tells us he is willing to change. His favourite inventions are the wireless controller and American size crisp packets.

Contributing Writers/Reviewers:
Roughdawg4
Karl Pendlebury
We are a friendly bunch at Punk and Lizard but we have a strict policy regarding reviews and scoring which can be read here.

All review codes are requested by Punk and Lizard administration only. These are sent from our Twitter account @PunkAndLizard or directly via email from punkandlizard@punkandlizard[dot]com
Requests sent from any other email or Twitter account are unauthorised.